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Frustated

Hi. Thought that I would introduce myself. I hope to find some answers here.

I'm almost 40, female, and in November of 2012 I finally got a referral to a rheumatologist. He did an exam, ran some labs, and the whole nine yards. I still have no firm diagnosis but my labs came back positive for anti-dsdna and anti-ro. My liver enzymes are also elevated and I have hives and itchiness on my palms and feet most days. I've had Hashimoto's for 19 years. I've had a positive ANA since I was 15 years old. I've been in pain all my life but for the most part it's tolerable. Lately it hasn't been and I'm currently waiting for a referral to pain management.

The rheumatologist that I went to said that I didn't have enough criteria for lupus but that he suspected it. His exact words were "Your body just loves to make auto-antibodies." My maternal grandmother died of lupus complications and my mother had RA. Over the years I've had trouble with doctors only running labs for the RA factor. I don't have that and it was frustrating to be told that my symptoms were basically psychosomatic in nature.

I may be lacking in diagnosis but it does feel nice to know that it's not all in my head. Now if I could just get through this spell of pain things would be groovy. My username is the nickname for one of my cats.

Hi and welcome to WHL! We are glad to have you. It is always nice to have another animal lover in the family.

Thanks for the welcome! I guess you could call me an animal lover. Crazy cat lady would probably be closer to accurate, lol. We have four cats!

Originally Posted by tgal

quick question: even though he didn't name it, could you tell mme what meds you are taking? That may alter my answer to you

The rheumatologist put me on 15 mgs of Meloxicam. The endocrinologist put me on 200 mcgs of Levothyroxine. The GP currently has me on 50 mgs of Vistaril as needed for hives and 50 mgs of Tramadol twice daily. Sorry I didn't list it before. Earlier this year I was on Predinisone for a while, prescribed by my GP. I've not bothered to go back to the rheumatologist because the last time I went (DEC 2012) he said that there was nothing he could really do for me and my pain at the time was tolerable. It became intolerable in April, so I saw my GP about it. Now I'm waiting for a referral to pain management because I thought that the pain would go away once spring was over. Storms seem to make my pain worse.

However, since reading some of the posts on here, I'm wondering if I shouldn't attempt to make a visit to the rheumatologist to see what's up? My GP recently ran a liver panel and my total cholesterol is borked, my liver enzymes are borked and I'm starting to wonder if the itching I've got going on is liver related. It's weird that my cholesterol is so insanely high considering that we don't eat junk food often nor meat nor eggs. Dairy is out because everyone in the house is lactose intolerant except for my husband. Although my thyroid may have something to do with it considering that the lowest the GP could get it was 50 TSH for over two years. I'm now euthyroid with a larger than average dose. The endocrinologist said that I'm not processing the T4 efficiently.

Hello and welcome to our family! I think that seeing a rheumatologist might be a good idea for you. In that way, you can at least find out if all of these issues are somehow connected. Sometimes high cholesterol is more of a hereditary thing than an environmental thing. Please let us know if you do see a rheumatologist and what he/she says. I wish you the best.